It's all downhill from here

Eating marshmallows to keep her distracted long enough to stay in her seat while the plane takes off.

On the flight from Hong Kong to Detroit we were in business class. I had always wanted to have a flight with these individual seats that recline to a completely flat bed. It was glorious and the best trip ever except for 2 things:

1. One of our seats was broken and wouldn't recline. We since complained to Delta and all they offered was a $500 travel voucher. Not much compensation for such a pricey seat. Without the recline 14 hours sitting straight up is brutal. Fortunately we could just pop Beatrix with us and leave that seat empty.

2. Beatrix was not impressed with the seats nor the movie collection. She was much more interested in running up and down the aisles. She did not allow us to have the complete relaxing experience for which the seats were intended.

Olivia, on the other hand, loved it. She stayed awake the whole time watching movies and getting snacks. Once I showed her the basket full of snacks that was in the galley, she made sure that the basket was empty by the time we got to Detroit. She was also complemented by the flight attendants and other passengers on what a great traveler she is. Of course it wasn't always that way. She has traveled a lot, but I remember the first solo trip I made with her was a short flight from Pittsburgh to Nashville. She was about 9 months old and was very active. She did not care to sit and we were immediately in a fight to keep her on my lap. Thankfully there was a young woman on the flight who was sitting in front of us and she turned around and distracted her for the duration. I'm not sure how we would have got through that flight otherwise. Since then Olivia has flown to San Francisco with me solo twice when she was around a year old and again when she was 2. Both times she was great. She has also gone as far as Paris when she was 4.5 and she loved that flight too.

Here's to hoping that Beatrix becomes as great of a traveler as Olivia. However, how will she ever be happy in coach?